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Websites, Blogs, Books and Tours

“Costa Rica Sunset” photo I made in 2011

My initial thinking was either Panama or Costa Rica as a retirement home and at first I focused on Panama, my most recent visit. The InternationalLiving site and products were the first ones promising I could live very nicely on my social security check or $1,500 a month in most Latin American countries. Then I found both Panama and Costa Rica sites saying something similarly. My hope were up! I can live a tropical life and have money left to travel to the other countries I don’t live in and all over the one I live in. I subscribed to the InternationalLiving Magazine, which I now would not advise, though I’ve only received one issue. Actually, there is good information, but that organization is pushing buying property and I will definitely rent for many reasons I’ll list later. They also have a free InternationalLiving Postcard (daily email) which has some good stories of people who have retired in many different places around the world, but focused on Latin America which is good for me, but again they are selling something in each email. So I’m learning from these but peeved at the way they keep asking for my money.


The first focus on PANAMA led me to these sites with various amounts of help:

Panama City from Cruise Ship in Canal, Photo by Charlie
  •  Panama For Real which is an unprofessional blog kind of site by a young man from Tulsa who married a Panamanian is the “Panama Gringo” and writes straight-forward opinions about various parts of Panama with his added home videos. It is interesting and certainly not a hard sell on Panama. He only wants to sell ads on his site.
  • Panama Relocation Tours which is modeled after the long time tour in Costa Rica and would be a must to take if I were still considering Panama.
  • TheInternational Living Panama Page has different info and more links
  • Google will take you to many other sites including real estate sites, but my initial searches discouraged me on Panama and I started focusing on Costa Rica

So I started searching for COSTA RICA information and found much more:

“Blue Jeans Frog: in Tortuguero by Charlie
  •  Christopher Howard’s Live in Costa Rica Relocation/Retirement Tours which also has books, web information galore, a blog and simply the main guy to go to if thinking about moving to Costa Rica. I will be talking about him more in future posts.
  • The Real Costa Rica which is a less professional page with lots of information and his own tour
  •  InternationalLiving site has some good articles on Costa Rica too, but you have to sign up to get access to some of them. Again they seem to be more interested in real estate sales than anything
  • And of course Google will give you more than you want

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Background for Moving Overseas

HISTORY OF A TARZAN WANNABE
Dancing in The Gambia on a 2009 return trip, photo by Jill

I’m a person of adventure since childhood, always wanting to live in a jungle or rainforest, as a teen to be a medical missionary in Africa, not making the medical part and a marriage that didn’t do missions, I continued to dream. After divorce and early retirement, God gifted me with a 3-year job in The Gambia, West Africa. My favorite job and place to live ever! But mission board politics and philosophy was such that I wouldn’t re-up for another 2 or 3 years and retirement there was not practical because of horrible medical services and the unstable and corrupt government.

SO I TRIED THE CONCRETE JUNGLE

 

My Condo Downtown near State Capitol, Farmers’ Mkt.

Living 10 years in downtown Nashville in a condo and loving it! I traveled as much as my meager income would allow, including three trips to Costa Rica along with trips to Guatemala, Mexico, Kenya, Brazil, Tanzania and this year to Panama. The problem was I could not afford these trips I loved so much and was spending my very small savings. Plus I saw “the handwriting on the wall” in my condo of mostly mobile young adults in an aging complex that was going to start costing more for big repairs like roof and parking lot and I needed to “really retire” and not parent young adults. 

THEN I MOVE TO A RETIREMENT VILLAGE
My Cottage at McKendree Village, Hermitage-Nashville

Two years ago I picked the only one I could afford in an old suburb of Nashville, put my condo on the market, sold it in one week, and made the big move to an independent living cottage (2 bedroom house) in a beautifully forested neighborhood of senior adults, where I took up local birding, and making photo books of my experiences. I really like McKendree Village where I now live and if Costa Rica doesn’t work out, I will stay here. But I soon discovered that there are other expenses and my active lifestyle and love of eating out left me almost no money for travel. I was using my equity money for one or two exotic trips a year and that was not wise. Plus the management here was targeting or getting too many elderly in poor health, even in independent living, making me feel like I’m living in a Nursing Home as I trip over walkers and wheel chairs in the dining room. I still ride my bike 50 miles a week, walk a lot and do my adventures, but the money will run dry and the community is not one for my active lifestyle. Sooooo . . .

My photo, Resplendent Quetzal,
While on 2010 Bird Safari, Costa Rica
NOW I’M MAYBE CORRECTING MY LAST DECISION:
I started researching online about retiring in places like Panama, which I thoroughly enjoyed visiting last January and could live in. One thing led to another and I’m now big into checking it out now and refocused on Costa Rica. I know, I’m like a kid just out of college starting all over again and somehow that invigorates me!
 
A RECORD OF MY DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
One of the things I’m reading online are blogs from people who live in another country and they are sometimes helpful. So today I decided to start this diary of the steps I’m going through that might help someone else and give me an interesting record of what I went through, whether I move or not. This is in addition to 3 other blogs I write. But this will either have an ending or maybe be turned into a Costa Rica Blog. We’ll see!